Discovery is now scheduled to launch on July 26

Discovery is now scheduled to launch on July 26

NASA has reported that they are now planning to aim for a Tuesday launch of the Discovery Space Shuttle. This news comes after days of hard work by the scientists at NASA who have till now failed to solve the problem which resulted in the postponement of the flight last week. They have for now turned up possible causes of the malfunction in one of the four fuel sensors which is very important for the proper functioning of the Space Shuttle.

The shuttle project manager Bill Parsons said that NASA would be testing their analysis done in the last couple of days by loading the external fuel tank with liquid oxygen and hydrogen during countdown in order to re-create the situation of the original launch date. They are even ready to go to space with it not working if they can pinpoint the reason behind the malfunction. The shuttle is loaded with three other sensors but if NASA fails to find out the reason behind the problem, they would continue with their research with the Space Shuttle grounded.

The next launch countdown would begin at midday Saturday and shuttle is now due to be launched at 10:39 a.m. Eastern time. Discovery is then scheduled to lift off from its Launch Pad 39B at the space center for a 13-day mission to the ISS. NASA has also clarified that there are 2 more possible launch windows available on July 29 and 31 if anything goes wrong at the last moment. However, they would have to wait for the month of September, if they cannot find out the solution to these latest troubles by August 4.